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De Lille running out of time to defend her position as Cape Town’s mayor

04 January 2018 - 19:05
Claudi Mailovich

Mayor Patricia de Lille. Picture: TREVOR SAMSON

Patricia de Lille has until Friday to give reasons to the DA as to why she should not resign as mayor of Cape Town.

This follows a postponement of the initial deadline given by the party’s federal executive gave to De Lille, following an investigation by one of its sub-committees.

The sub-committee found sufficient management and governance-related challenges prevalent in the DA’s City of Cape Town caucus negatively impacting the city’s mandate to govern efficiently, DA spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said in a statement in December.

De Lille was placed on suspension by the DA pending the outcome of the investigations. No other decisions have yet been made, besides the suspension from party activities, pending the provision of the reasons provided to the federal executive.

The lead-up to De Lille’s suspension was characterised by mounting tension within the top echelons of the City of Cape Town. It was reported in November last year that the conflict had embroiled city manager Achmat Ebrahim‚ transport commissioner Melissa Whitehead, and the executive director of the department of the mayor Craig Kesson.

This coincided with a conflict between De Lille and MMC JP Smith, which had led to a DA inquiry.

Kesson reportedly accused De Lille in an affidavit of issuing instructions to make allegations of financial misconduct against Ebrahim and Whitehead "go away".

De Lille told Business Day in December, before the deadline for her reasons were originally postponed, that she was considering her legal options as she did not believe the reasons provided by the DA warranted her suspension or removal.